Superman Begins

[Admiral_Young]

No one wants to see an origin story...how wrong you are about that...at least for myself, can't really state anyone else's opinion. I LOVE Superman's origin and the more re-tellings I can get of it the better. Actually I was thinking that we could take the one page splash from the first page in All-Star Superman to re-tell the origin with a voice over from whoever is playing Clark/Superman. That would be enough for me. I guess what is truly needed is an actual story for this idea to truly work?

As for doing a period piece...I wouldn't mind an adaption of the great book Its's Superman...that is different from anything else that has been done on Superman before. Not sure how well it would translate on screen though.

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

A short retelling of the origin would be fine, whether it's a montage in the credits sequence, or whatever, but a long retelling would be a stretch.

[The Old Mixer]

Were a reboot deemed necessary, I think the best approach that would please the most people would be to do a story with Superman well-established in his career, but that has a reason to touch upon aspects of his origin as a story point. Not unlike SR, actually, save that SR was revisiting someone else's origin movie rather than establishing an origin of its own.

[Galactus]

I can't believe how many people are opposed to a complete reboot from the beginning of Superman when they just did the same thing in Batman and it worked well. A new origin to me would be essential to a new Superman reboot especially if you want to make a different type of Superman.

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

A beat by beat origin story had never been put on screen for Batman before Batman Begins. That's not the case for Superman. Working the origin in somehow is fine. I just think it would be better not to go through it again in detail the way that Superman: The Movie did.

[The Old Mixer]

I'm sure some would appreciate the full origin treatment, but for those with longer memories, it's like the franchise is on a treadmill. They're telling his origin again? The character has been around for 70 years, they've told his origin many, many times. Enough to just get on with telling some stories already!

[Galactus]

I would disagree with that. It is the same origin with different details added or changed to keep with the modern take on Batman and why he is the way he is. The exact same thing could be done for Superman. Like someone said before that telling is 30 years old now.

[The Old Mixer]

But there have been many less-definitive retellings of his origins in that 30 years--two animated series, two comics reboots, Lois & Clark, Smallville, probably something else I'm forgetting. (I deliberately left out Superboy as it didn't dwell on his origins because he didn't know he was a Kryptonian yet.) The character is constantly being reestablished, time to just enjoy him as an established figure.

[Skywalker]

The Evil Dead wrote:

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Just gimme Superman fighting a giant fucking robot and I'm sold.

I want to see him rassle a polar bear outside the Fortress of Solitude.

[Galactus]

In the last 20 years Batman has had 6 movies, 4 animated series, countless tellings and reimagining in the comics. It is not like either character needs promoting. If you look at the rating not that many people watch Smallville and even if you do, that Clark is nothing like the Superman that most of us know. TAS and Lois and Clark ended around 10 years ago. There is more than enough room to tell a Superman origin story.

[The Old Mixer]

And as was pointed out upthread, BB was the first time that Batman's origin had been told in detail in a movie. Superman's already had that, plus all the multiple recent versions in other media.

I just don't see any compelling need for a new origin movie. Now if you give a hypothetical non-origin movie or two a chance, whether or not they include or directly continue from Singer, then there's a much stronger case for one. 10 years from now, the Donner film will be half as old as the character, and about two generations old. There's a much stronger case for a new origin movie then, if you're willing to be patient.

[StarTrek1701]

slappy wrote:

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I can't believe this many people can be that wrong about something that's this much of a no-brainer.

- No period pieces. That'll flop.

- No continuing Donner or Singer's versions. That's just sound logic.

- No origin story. Nobody needs or wants it.

- Create real, relevant, smart drama for the Man of Steel. If anything is be learned from Nolan, it's make a good movie, not a good Superman movie. Put Superman in peril.

- Give Superman a physical threat that he can punch, surrounded by a smart movie.

- Explain to the audience why Superman matters, even if you have to hit them over the head with it. I suggest "What's So Funny Bout Truth, Justice & The American Way" as a starting point, one of the last relevant Superman stories.

If what you said can be put in a movie with a better cast that S:R (except with Brandon Routh, he IS this gen's Superman) then the next Superman movie will be one of the biggest blockbusters of the year.

[Galactus]

I guess I don't see how it is any different than BB. We already had seen in two movies that he became driven to become Batman when his parents were killed in front of him. The only thing they added was Ra's which is a totally different telling of the story. It is a new twist.

Are you asking me to give you what the new twist would be for a Superman story?

I am getting old, so I might not have another 10 years to wait for a new Superman movie, especially if Singer makes another one.

[Admiral_Young]

Superman's origin story doesn't even need to be required as a main story plot in Begins...that is why I mentioned we could see snippets of it during flashback sequences at some crucial points during the movie. Perhaps Superman is battling Brainiac or Zod or Darkseid and he is remembering who he is and what he stands for, how he got to where he is now. That I took was the reason for the flashbacks in Batman Begins.

[Trekker4747]

StarTrek1701 wrote:

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[
If what you said can be put in a movie with a better cast that S:R (except with Brandon Routh, he IS this gen's Superman) then the next Superman movie will be one of the biggest blockbusters of the year.

Disagree. For a really good Superman we need a well-built man in his early to mid 30s wth more chiseled facial features than Routh and has a wore "supermanish" hair style.

Routh was OK, but he just doesn't have much of the "Superman look."